50-State Center
Every jurisdiction, verified and dated
Fifty-one wage-and-hour regimes are not fifty-one variations on one rulebook — they are a small number of structural patterns, overlaid by cities, moving on schedules already written into law. This page is built to be read three ways: look up one property, compare a set of states, or plan a whole portfolio. The comparison draws on the current rate records used by the state guides and tools. General wage floors were reviewed as of October 18, 2026; state, local, occupation, and employer-size conditions still require the guide and underlying source.
Three ways to read this page#
Looking up one property? Click its state on the map (or hover for a quick view) and open the full guide — minimum and tipped wages with scheduled changes, tip pooling, overtime, breaks, premium pay, service-charge law, pay administration, and any hotel-specific ordinances, each with sources and a last-reviewed date. For a property-specific answer that accounts for the city and room count, run the compliance profiler.
Comparing a set of states? Sort and filter the comparison table, then put finalists side by side. The tier badge compresses fourteen rule families into one column; the methodology behind it is published in full below, so you can decompose any badge back into the rules that produced it.
Planning or pricing a portfolio? Start with the six fault lines that organize the landscape, check the scheduled-change horizon for the rate steps already written into law, and read the multi-state strategy section for what changes — structurally, not just numerically — when a portfolio crosses a regime boundary. The portfolio forecaster turns the horizon into property-level cost curves; the workweek auditor and exposure modeler stress-test the operational consequences.
The map, two ways#
The default shading answers the first question a hotel operator should ask of any state: who funds the tipped wage? Green states require the full minimum wage in cash before a dollar of tips; blue states let tips carry part of the floor. With JavaScript on, a second lens shades the same map by complexity tier — where the rulebook itself, not just the wage level, diverges from the federal baseline. The red dot marks tracked hotel-specific laws, including statewide protections, and stays visible in both lenses. The hotel-law overlay is independent of either coloring: local wage and working-condition ordinances coexist with statewide hotel safety and recall laws.
- AL
- AK
- AZ
- AR
- CA
- CO
- CT
- DE
- DC
- FL
- GA
- HI
- ID
- IL
- IN
- IA
- KS
- KY
- LA
- ME
- MD
- MA
- MI
- MN
- MS
- MO
- MT
- NE
- NV
- NH
- NJ
- NM
- NY
- NC
- ND
- OH
- OK
- OR
- PA
- RI
- SC
- SD
- TN
- TX
- UT
- VT
- VA
- WA
- WV
- WI
- WY
- Tip credit allowed
- No tip credit
- Hotel-specific wage or working-conditions law
- T1 Federal pattern (31)
- T2 Moderate overlay (11)
- T3 Heavy overlay (6)
- T4 Structural divergence (3)
- Hotel-specific wage or working-conditions law
Compare all 51 jurisdictions#
Click any column header to sort; use the filters to cut the table to the states you operate in. Figures reflect each state's current rate as of its listed effective date; most adjust annually on January 1 (Florida’s final scheduled step was September 30, 2026, with January indexing from 2028; DC, Oregon, and many localities on July 1). The next wage step column shows the earliest change already written into state law — "Indexed" identifies a statutory adjustment formula where the next dollar figure has not yet been incorporated.
| State | Tier | Minimum wage | Tipped cash | Max tip credit | Daily OT | Meal break | Rest break | Hotel laws | Next wage step |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | T1 | $7.25 | $2.13 | $5.12 | — | No | No | — | — |
| Alaska | T3 | $14.00 | $14.00 | None | 8 hrs | No | No | — | MW $15.00 · July 1, 2027 |
| Arizona | T2 | $15.15 | $12.15 | $3.00 | — | No | No | — | Indexed (CPI) |
| Arkansas | T1 | $11.00 | $2.63 | $8.37 | — | No | No | — | — |
| California | T4 | $16.90 | $16.90 | None | 8 hrs | Yes | Yes | 15 | MW $17.40 · 2027-01-01 |
| Colorado | T4 | $15.16 | $12.14 | $3.02 | 12 hrs | Yes | Yes | — | Indexed (CPI) |
| Connecticut | T2 | $16.94 | $6.38 | $10.56 | — | Yes | No | — | Indexed (Employment Cost Index) |
| Delaware | T1 | $15.00 | $2.23 | $12.77 | — | Yes | No | — | — |
| District of Columbia | T2 | $18.40 | $10.30 | $8.10 | — | No | No | — | Indexed adjustment · July 1, 2027 |
| Florida | T1 | $15.00 | $11.98 | $3.02 | — | No | No | — | Indexed adjustments begin · January 1, 2028 |
| Georgia | T1 | $7.25 | $2.13 | $5.12 | — | No | No | — | — |
| Hawaii | T1 | $16.00 | $14.75 | $1.25 | — | No | No | — | MW $18.00 · January 1, 2028 |
| Idaho | T1 | $7.25 | $3.35 | $3.90 | — | No | No | — | — |
| Illinois | T3 | $15.00 | $9.00 | $6.00 | — | Yes | Yes | 1 | — |
| Indiana | T1 | $7.25 | $2.13 | $5.12 | — | No | No | — | — |
| Iowa | T1 | $7.25 | $4.35 | $2.90 | — | No | No | — | — |
| Kansas | T1 | $7.25 | $2.13 | $5.12 | — | No | No | — | — |
| Kentucky | T2 | $7.25 | $2.13 | $5.12 | — | Yes | Yes | — | — |
| Louisiana | T1 | $7.25 | $2.13 | $5.12 | — | No | No | — | — |
| Maine | T2 | $15.10 | $7.55 | $7.55 | — | Yes | No | — | $15.70 on Jan 1, 2027 |
| Maryland | T1 | $15.00 | $3.63 | $11.37 | — | No | No | — | — |
| Massachusetts | T2 | $15.00 | $6.75 | $8.25 | — | Yes | No | — | — |
| Michigan | T1 | $13.73 | $5.49 | $8.24 | — | No | No | — | MW $15.00 · January 1, 2027 |
| Minnesota | T3 | $11.41 | $11.41 | None | — | Yes | Yes | — | Indexed (CPI) |
| Mississippi | T1 | $7.25 | $2.13 | $5.12 | — | No | No | — | — |
| Missouri | T1 | $15.00 | $7.50 | $7.50 | — | No | No | — | — |
| Montana | T2 | $10.85 | $10.85 | None | — | No | No | — | MW $11.20 · 2027-01-01 |
| Nebraska | T2 | $15.00 | $2.13 | $12.87 | — | No | No | — | MW $15.26 · January 1, 2027; annual 1.75% statutory increases |
| Nevada | T3 | $12.00 | $12.00 | None | 8 hrs | Yes | Yes | — | — |
| New Hampshire | T1 | $7.25 | $3.27 | $3.98 | — | Yes | No | — | — |
| New Jersey | T2 | $15.92 | $6.05 | $9.87 | — | No | No | 1 | $16.48 on Jan 1, 2027 |
| New Mexico | T1 | $12.00 | $3.00 | $9.00 | — | No | No | — | — |
| New York | T3 | $17.00 | $11.35 | $5.65 | — | Yes | No | — | Indexed (CPI) |
| North Carolina | T1 | $7.25 | $2.13 | $5.12 | — | No | No | — | — |
| North Dakota | T1 | $7.25 | $4.86 | $2.39 | — | Yes | No | — | — |
| Ohio | T1 | $11.00 | $5.50 | $5.50 | — | No | No | — | Indexed (CPI) |
| Oklahoma | T1 | $7.25 | $2.13 | $5.12 | — | No | No | — | — |
| Oregon | T3 | $15.55 | $15.55 | None | — | Yes | Yes | — | Indexed adjustment · July 1, 2027 |
| Pennsylvania | T1 | $7.25 | $2.83 | $4.42 | — | No | No | — | — |
| Rhode Island | T2 | $16.00 | $3.89 | $12.11 | — | Yes | No | — | MW $17.00 · January 1, 2027 |
| South Carolina | T1 | $7.25 | $2.13 | $5.12 | — | No | No | — | — |
| South Dakota | T1 | $11.85 | $5.925 | $5.925 | — | No | No | — | MW $12.30 · 2027-01-01 |
| Tennessee | T1 | $7.25 | $2.13 | $5.12 | — | Yes | No | — | — |
| Texas | T1 | $7.25 | $2.13 | $5.12 | — | No | No | — | — |
| Utah | T1 | $7.25 | $2.13 | $5.12 | — | No | No | — | — |
| Vermont | T2 | $14.42 | $7.21 | $7.21 | — | Yes | Yes | — | Indexed (CPI) |
| Virginia | T1 | $12.77 | $2.13 | $10.64 | — | No | No | — | MW $13.75 · January 1, 2027; $15.00 in 2028; indexing resumes 2029 |
| Washington | T4 | $17.13 | $17.13 | None | — | Yes | Yes | 3 | MW $17.73 · 2027-01-01 |
| West Virginia | T1 | $8.75 | $2.62 | $6.13 | — | Yes | No | — | — |
| Wisconsin | T1 | $7.25 | $2.33 | $4.92 | — | No | No | — | — |
| Wyoming | T1 | $7.25 | $2.13 | $5.12 | — | No | No | — | — |
Reading the table like a compliance officer#
- The minimum wage column is the floor of the floor. 12 states have tracked sub-state wage geography — city, county, or state-defined region (37 rate records) — and hotel-specific wage floors apply in 2 states. The four states with tracked hotel laws also include safety and other requirements that do not themselves set a higher wage. A state-level number is the beginning of the wage analysis, never the end — each state guide lists the tracked sub-state rates and their coverage.
- Tipped cash vs. credit: where the credit column shows "None," tips ride on top of the full minimum wage — and tip-pool design rules change too (see tip pooling). Where a credit is allowed, the cash column is a conditional floor: it holds only if tips actually close the gap, with notice, in every workweek (see the tip credit).
- The tier badge is a composite, not a verdict. It counts and weights the distinct rule families a payroll system must encode beyond the FLSA — the full scoring table is below. Two states with the same badge can owe it to different rules.
- Daily OT: only 4 states have it, but they include the largest hospitality markets, and the column compresses real variety — California adds double time and a seventh-day rule; Nevada's daily rule applies only to employees earning less than 1.5× the minimum wage, measured over a 24-hour workday anchored to the first shift start. Click through before relying on the number.
- Meal and rest "Yes/No" undersells the stakes. In 8 states a missed break converts directly into money owed — an extra hour of premium pay in the strictest, back wages or liquidated damages elsewhere (see meal & rest breaks). That is a pay-code and timekeeping problem, not a policy-manual problem.
- Hotel laws: the count badges link through each state page to ordinance-level detail: hotel minimum wages, housekeeping workload premiums, healthcare payments, retention rules (full map: hotel ordinances).
- The stricter rule wins. Federal, state, and local law apply simultaneously; compliance means the most protective applicable standard, provision by provision — never on average, and never by choosing a governing law. The strategy section works through what that means for a multi-state portfolio.
Put two or three states side by side#
Pick jurisdictions to compare every dimension this page tracks — wage floors, tipped structure, overtime architecture, break rules, premium-pay families, exempt salary floors, wage-floor motion, local rates, and the hotel-ordinance overlay. Rows where the states differ are highlighted; the address bar updates so a comparison can be shared.
Six fault lines that organize the landscape#
These are overlapping lenses, not exclusive buckets — California sits on four of the six at once. Each lens is computed from the dataset (the chips below summarize the tracked rule fields), and each one corresponds to a different operational system that has to change when a portfolio crosses it. That correspondence is the point: a "state law survey" that lists rules alphabetically tells you what the law says; reading the same rules as fault lines tells you which of your systems — payroll configuration, timekeeping, scheduling, tip administration, budgeting — bears the impact.
1. Where the wage floor sits — and how far up it goes#
20 states sit at the federal $7.25 floor, whose federal amount has been unchanged since July 2009; the other 31 jurisdictions are above it. Among the tracked rates as of October 18, 2026, the range reaches $18.40 at the state/DC level (District of Columbia), $21.78 at the city level (Burien, for employers with 501+ employees), and $26.50 under an in-effect hotel-specific ordinance (Long Beach, for hotels with 100+ rooms) — a spread of more than 3:1 for the same job in the same company. Other useful comparisons remain Tukwila’s $21.65 general floor for covered employers and Oakland’s $25.14 hotel wage without qualifying health benefits; the applicable tier and coverage facts matter.
The trap in this lens is reading the floor as a proxy for the rulebook. Of the 20 federal-floor states, 6 still impose at least one state rule family on top of the federal wage: New Hampshire pairs its $7.25 floor with a meal-period mandate and reporting-time pay; Kentucky mandates meal periods and paid rest breaks and makes missed breaks recoverable as wages. A cheap-wage state is not automatically a federal-only state:
2. Who funds the tipped wage#
7 states — concentrated in the West — prohibit the tip credit outright. This is the single most consequential binary on the map for a hotel, because it restructures pay for the largest tipped departments rather than merely raising it. Where the credit is barred, the entire federal tip-credit apparatus — advance tip-credit notice, occupation-based dual-jobs analysis, and workweek tip-shortfall true-ups — simply has no work to do; in exchange, every server, bartender, and bell attendant costs the full minimum in cash, and tip-pool design becomes the live legal question, since federal law permits broader pools (including back-of-house) only when no credit is taken. The tip-credit brief and tip pool architect cover both sides of the line.
The line itself is moving — by schedule, not just by ballot. The District of Columbia keeps its credit but steps the tipped cash wage up a published percent-of-minimum schedule through 2034, and Chicago walks its tipped wage to full parity with the city minimum by 2030 for larger employers. Both schedules appear, dated, in the horizon table: in tipped-wage planning, the relevant question is less "does this state allow a credit?" than "how much credit will this jurisdiction allow in the year I'm budgeting for?"
3. How overtime accrues#
In 4 states, overtime is evaluated day by day, not only across the 40-hour week. The operational difference is architectural: weekly-only overtime lets a scheduler trade a long Tuesday against a short Thursday at zero marginal cost, while daily overtime prices every individual long day — a banquet overrun, a clopen, a shift swap an employee requested — regardless of the weekly total. Timekeeping has to evaluate each workday (in Nevada, each shift-anchored 24-hour workday for sub-threshold earners), and California adds double time past 12 hours plus seventh-consecutive-day rules. The workweek auditor applies each state's actual accrual rules to a real week; the regular-rate brief covers the second-order problem — what the overtime rate itself must include, such as service-charge distributions.
4. Whether the floor moves on its own#
22 jurisdictions have a wage floor governed by an indexed adjustment, fixed step, or statutory formula. The budgeting consequence is asymmetric. Published steps are knowable in advance — they appear in the horizon table with dates and figures. Future indexed amounts remain unknown until announced, and an index does not guarantee an increase every year. Most indexed mechanisms use consumer prices; Connecticut uses the Employment Cost Index. Annual caps also differ: California caps its adjustment at 3.5%, while Minnesota and Vermont have 5% caps. A multi-state labor budget therefore needs two mechanisms: fixed entries for published steps and a placeholder-plus-true-up convention for unknown indexed figures — which the portfolio forecaster models with an adjustable CPI assumption. The state guides identify the actual index, timing, and qualifications; the general modeling assumption is not a substitute for them. Jurisdictions on neither mechanism require a new legal change to move their wage floor.
5. Preemption, or who else gets to regulate you#
The comparison records flag 30 states for local minimum-wage preemption; the other 21 jurisdictions are not flagged. This is a minimum-wage classification, not a blanket statement about every local employment rule or an unlimited grant of municipal authority. Preemption does not soften the state’s own rules — Nevada has daily overtime and a no-credit regime — and does not displace federal law. Nor does it guarantee one wage everywhere: New York and Oregon establish regional minimums by state law, so that variation belongs to the state rather than to a city. Consult each guide and the particular preemption rule before treating a local wage or working-condition requirement as permitted or barred.
The hotel-law inventory illustrates why those questions must stay separate. Of 20 tracked laws in 4 states, 16 are local enactments and 4 are statewide protections. Illinois and New Jersey’s panic-button statutes, Washington’s isolated-worker law, and California’s recall law do not depend on municipal minimum-wage authority. Local wage, safety, workload, healthcare, and retention rules also raise distinct preemption questions. The operational reading remains property-specific: first identify the state or regional wage floor, then check which local and hotel-specific requirements lawfully apply to that property. The red dots identify tracked hotel laws; they do not decide a preemption question.
6. The hotel-ordinance overlay#
The newest and fastest-moving fault line targets hotels by name, through both municipal ordinances and statewide legislation: 20 tracked laws in 4 states (20 currently in effect) impose hotel-specific minimum wages, healthcare expenditures, housekeeping workload caps with premium pay, worker retention on ownership change, service-charge pass-throughs, and panic-button requirements. Coverage often switches on at a room-count threshold, although some statewide protections reach all covered hotels. Many ordinances permit specified collective-bargaining waivers; coverage and waiver rules must be read law by law. The overlay section below and the hotel-ordinances brief explain those distinctions.
The complexity index — four tiers, scored in the open#
The tier badge answers one question: how many distinct rule families beyond the FLSA must your systems encode to run a hotel in this state, and how structural are they? Each jurisdiction is scored against fourteen factors weighted by how deeply they cut — +3 where the rule forces a different payroll or timekeeping architecture (daily overtime, hotel ordinances), +2 where it restructures a pay element (no tip credit, monetized breaks, sub-state wage geography), +1 where it adds a discrete rule to administer. The full factor table is below; the score is derived from the tracked rule fields.
-
T1 0–2 points
Federal pattern — 31 jurisdictions
The FLSA is effectively the whole rulebook; state law adds at most one or two discrete rules.
-
T2 3–6 points
Moderate overlay — 11 jurisdictions
A meaningful state layer — typically a higher moving wage floor plus one or two additional rule families.
-
T3 7–10 points
Heavy overlay — 6 jurisdictions
Several interacting state rule families; payroll and scheduling need state-specific configuration.
-
T4 11–21 points
Structural divergence — 3 jurisdictions
The state (and often its cities) impose a different compliance architecture, not just stricter numbers.
The full scoring methodology — every factor, weight, and trigger
Each jurisdiction's score is the sum of the weights below; the maximum is 21. Weights follow one rule: +3 for rule families that force a structurally different payroll or compliance architecture, +2 for rules that restructure an existing pay element, +1 for discrete rules that add administration without changing the architecture. The score is computed from the same data fields that populate the table above and updated with the underlying rule fields.
| Factor | Weight | What trips it | Jurisdictions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily overtime or double time | +3 | State law requires overtime by the day (or double time), not only past 40 hours in a week. | 4 |
| Hotel-specific laws | +3 | At least one tracked city or statewide law imposes hotel-specific wage, workload, healthcare, retention, or service-charge obligations. | 4 |
| Tip credit prohibited | +2 | Tipped employees must receive the full minimum wage in cash before tips. | 7 |
| Missed-break pay exposure | +2 | State law converts a missed or non-compliant meal or rest period into money owed — an extra hour of premium pay in the strictest states; back wages, liquidated damages, or civil penalties elsewhere. | 8 |
| Local minimum wages within the state | +2 | One or more cities or counties set their own general minimum wage above the state floor. | 12 |
| Meal period mandated | +1 | State law requires meal periods for adult hotel employees. | 19 |
| Rest breaks mandated | +1 | State law requires paid rest breaks for adult hotel employees. | 9 |
| Reporting-time pay | +1 | Employees who report as scheduled but are sent home early are owed show-up pay. | 8 |
| Split-shift premium | +1 | A split schedule in one workday owes an extra premium payment. | 2 |
| Spread-of-hours pay | +1 | A workday spanning a long enough span owes an extra hour of pay. | 1 |
| Wage floor in motion | +1 | The state minimum wage has an indexed adjustment (including Connecticut’s ECI), a statutory formula, or scheduled future steps. | 22 |
| Exempt salary floor above federal | +1 | White-collar exemptions require a salary above the federal $684/week. | 6 |
| Tiered or stepped tipped wage | +1 | The tipped cash wage varies by employer tier or moves on a published schedule. | 5 |
| Service-charge law | +1 | A statute or controlling case governs how mandatory service charges are disclosed or distributed. | 9 |
What the index does not measure#
Three honest limitations, so the badge is used for what it is. It is ordinal, not cardinal: California's distance above Washington inside Tier 4 is larger than the badges suggest, and a state one point past a cutoff is not categorically different from a state one point under it. It is presence-weighted, not enforcement-weighted: New York lands in Tier 3 on rule count, which understates the litigation intensity a downstate full-service hotel actually faces — wage-theft exposure, frequency-of-pay claims, and an active plaintiffs' bar are real costs the index does not see; the exposure modeler prices that dimension. It measures divergence, not cost or risk: a Tier 1 badge means the federal baseline carries most of the tracked rulebook, with any state additions still applicable, and the FLSA alone — tip-credit conditions, regular-rate computation, off-the-clock exposure, collective actions — is the densest single source of hotel wage litigation in the country. Tier 1 is where federal-only mistakes are made with the greatest confidence.
The scheduled-change horizon#
The table collects published general state wage steps, hotel wage and benefit steps, and the tipped-wage schedules described on this page, as of October 18, 2026. These are enacted schedules or published notices, not proposals. Percentage rows are labeled separately from fixed dollar amounts. The cluster pattern matters as much as any single row: January 1 is a major reset for state floors, while July 1 governs many local rates, the District, Oregon, and California hotel ordinances. Florida’s September 30, 2026 step was its last fixed step; its next indexed adjustment begins January 1, 2028. Treat each applicable date as a release: rate tables, tip-credit math, and posted notices may change together, mid-year — not just at fiscal year-end.
| Effective | Jurisdiction | What changes | New figure | Source of law |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 1, 2027 | California | General minimum wage | $17.40 | State schedule and source notes |
| January 1, 2027 | Maine | General minimum wage | $15.70 | State schedule and source notes |
| January 1, 2027 | Maine | Tipped cash / maximum tip credit | $7.85 / $7.85 | Tipped-wage schedule and source notes — Subject to the applicable occupation, notice, actual-tip and other tip-credit conditions. |
| January 1, 2027 | Michigan | General minimum wage | $15.00 | State schedule and source notes |
| January 1, 2027 | Michigan | Tipped cash as a share of minimum | 42% | Tipped-wage schedule and source notes — Applies to the minimum wage in effect on that date; future indexed dollar amounts are not assumed. |
| January 1, 2027 | Montana | General minimum wage | $11.20 | State schedule and source notes |
| January 1, 2027 | Nebraska | General minimum wage | $15.26 | State schedule and source notes |
| January 1, 2027 | Nebraska | Tipped cash / maximum tip credit | $2.13 / $13.13 | Tipped-wage schedule and source notes — Subject to the applicable occupation, notice, actual-tip and other tip-credit conditions. |
| January 1, 2027 | New Jersey | General minimum wage | $16.48 | State schedule and source notes |
| January 1, 2027 | New Jersey | Tipped cash / maximum tip credit | $6.61 / $9.87 | Tipped-wage schedule and source notes — Subject to the applicable occupation, notice, actual-tip and other tip-credit conditions. |
| January 1, 2027 | Rhode Island | General minimum wage | $17.00 | State schedule and source notes |
| January 1, 2027 | South Dakota | General minimum wage | $12.30 | State schedule and source notes |
| January 1, 2027 | South Dakota | Tipped cash / maximum tip credit | $6.15 / $6.15 | Tipped-wage schedule and source notes — Subject to the applicable occupation, notice, actual-tip and other tip-credit conditions. |
| January 1, 2027 | Virginia | General minimum wage | $13.75 | State schedule and source notes |
| January 1, 2027 | Virginia | Tipped cash / maximum tip credit | $2.13 / $11.62 | Tipped-wage schedule and source notes — Subject to the applicable occupation, notice, actual-tip and other tip-credit conditions. |
| January 1, 2027 | Washington | General minimum wage | $17.73 | State schedule and source notes |
| July 1, 2027 | Alaska | General minimum wage | $15.00 | State schedule and source notes |
| July 1, 2027 | Glendale | Hotel wage | $25.50 | Hotel Workers Protection Ordinance (GMC ch. 5.120, 2022) — Hotels with 60+ guest rooms in Glendale (wage component); workload and safety protections apply to all Glendale hotels |
| July 1, 2027 | Long Beach | Hotel wage | $28.00 | Hotel Worker Minimum Wage (LBMC 5.48; Measure N (2012) as raised by Measure RW (March 2024)) — Hotels with 100+ guest rooms in Long Beach, including workers placed by staffing agencies |
| July 1, 2027 | Los Angeles | Health benefit requirement | $6.00/hour | Citywide Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance (LAMC §186.00 et seq.), as amended by the 2025 "Olympic Wage" Ordinance 188610 and Ordinance 188944 (2026) — Separate from the hotel wage; benefit contributions and cash shortfalls follow the linked ordinance rules. |
| July 1, 2027 | Los Angeles | Hotel wage | $25.50 | Citywide Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance (LAMC §186.00 et seq.), as amended by the 2025 "Olympic Wage" Ordinance 188610 and Ordinance 188944 (2026) — Hotels with 60+ guest rooms in the City of Los Angeles (threshold as amended 2025; originally 300+ rooms in 2015, then 150+) |
| July 1, 2027 | San Diego | Hotel wage | $20.50 | Hospitality and Event-Center Minimum Wage Ordinance (O-22003; SDMC ch.3, art.12, div.1) — Hotels with 150 or more guest rooms; employees working at least two hours in a calendar week within San Diego, including covered contracted/on-premises services. Event-center and amusement-park coverage use separate definitions and rates. |
| July 1, 2027 | Santa Monica | Hotel wage | $25.50 | Hotel Worker Living Wage (SMMC ch. 4.63) — ALL hotels in Santa Monica regardless of room count, plus businesses operating on hotel property; covers workers employed directly or through contractors (hostels excluded) |
| January 1, 2028 | Hawaii | General minimum wage | $18.00 | State schedule and source notes |
| January 1, 2028 | Hawaii | Maximum tip credit | $1.50 (conditional) | HRS §387-2 and DLIR guidance — Lowest cash wage $16.50 against the $18.00 minimum only when actual tips support the full credit and the $7.00-above-minimum condition. |
| January 1, 2028 | Michigan | Tipped cash as a share of minimum | 44% | Tipped-wage schedule and source notes — Applies to the minimum wage in effect on that date; future indexed dollar amounts are not assumed. |
| January 1, 2028 | Nebraska | General minimum wage | $15.53 | State schedule and source notes |
| January 1, 2028 | Nebraska | Tipped cash / maximum tip credit | $2.13 / $13.40 | Tipped-wage schedule and source notes — Subject to the applicable occupation, notice, actual-tip and other tip-credit conditions. |
| January 1, 2028 | Virginia | General minimum wage | $15.00 | State schedule and source notes |
| January 1, 2028 | Virginia | Tipped cash / maximum tip credit | $2.13 / $12.87 | Tipped-wage schedule and source notes — Subject to the applicable occupation, notice, actual-tip and other tip-credit conditions. |
| July 1, 2028 | Chicago (21+ employees) | Tipped cash as a share of minimum | 84% | Chicago Minimum Wage Ordinance (MCC ch. 6-105) and the May 20, 2026 tipped-wage compromise ordinance — Percentage of the city minimum then in effect; dollar amounts continue to reflect annual indexing. |
| July 1, 2028 | District of Columbia | Tipped cash as a share of minimum | 60% | Tipped-wage schedule and source notes — Applies to the minimum wage in effect on that date; future indexed dollar amounts are not assumed. |
| July 1, 2028 | Glendale | Hotel wage | $28.50 | Hotel Workers Protection Ordinance (GMC ch. 5.120, 2022) — Hotels with 60+ guest rooms in Glendale (wage component); workload and safety protections apply to all Glendale hotels |
| July 1, 2028 | Long Beach | Hotel wage | $29.50 | Hotel Worker Minimum Wage (LBMC 5.48; Measure N (2012) as raised by Measure RW (March 2024)) — Hotels with 100+ guest rooms in Long Beach, including workers placed by staffing agencies |
| July 1, 2028 | Los Angeles | Hotel wage | $28.50 | Citywide Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance (LAMC §186.00 et seq.), as amended by the 2025 "Olympic Wage" Ordinance 188610 and Ordinance 188944 (2026) — Hotels with 60+ guest rooms in the City of Los Angeles (threshold as amended 2025; originally 300+ rooms in 2015, then 150+) |
| July 1, 2028 | San Diego | Hotel wage | $22.00 | Hospitality and Event-Center Minimum Wage Ordinance (O-22003; SDMC ch.3, art.12, div.1) — Hotels with 150 or more guest rooms; employees working at least two hours in a calendar week within San Diego, including covered contracted/on-premises services. Event-center and amusement-park coverage use separate definitions and rates. |
| July 1, 2028 | Santa Monica | Hotel wage | $28.50 | Hotel Worker Living Wage (SMMC ch. 4.63) — ALL hotels in Santa Monica regardless of room count, plus businesses operating on hotel property; covers workers employed directly or through contractors (hostels excluded) |
| January 1, 2029 | Michigan | Tipped cash as a share of minimum | 46% | Tipped-wage schedule and source notes — Applies to the minimum wage in effect on that date; future indexed dollar amounts are not assumed. |
| January 1, 2029 | Nebraska | General minimum wage | $15.80 | State schedule and source notes |
| January 1, 2029 | Nebraska | Tipped cash / maximum tip credit | $2.13 / $13.67 | Tipped-wage schedule and source notes — Subject to the applicable occupation, notice, actual-tip and other tip-credit conditions. |
| July 1, 2029 | Chicago (21+ employees) | Tipped cash as a share of minimum | 92% | Chicago Minimum Wage Ordinance (MCC ch. 6-105) and the May 20, 2026 tipped-wage compromise ordinance — Percentage of the city minimum then in effect; dollar amounts continue to reflect annual indexing. |
| July 1, 2029 | Glendale | Hotel wage | $29.00 | Hotel Workers Protection Ordinance (GMC ch. 5.120, 2022) — Hotels with 60+ guest rooms in Glendale (wage component); workload and safety protections apply to all Glendale hotels |
| July 1, 2029 | Los Angeles | Hotel wage | $29.00 | Citywide Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance (LAMC §186.00 et seq.), as amended by the 2025 "Olympic Wage" Ordinance 188610 and Ordinance 188944 (2026) — Hotels with 60+ guest rooms in the City of Los Angeles (threshold as amended 2025; originally 300+ rooms in 2015, then 150+) |
| July 1, 2029 | San Diego | Hotel wage | $23.50 | Hospitality and Event-Center Minimum Wage Ordinance (O-22003; SDMC ch.3, art.12, div.1) — Hotels with 150 or more guest rooms; employees working at least two hours in a calendar week within San Diego, including covered contracted/on-premises services. Event-center and amusement-park coverage use separate definitions and rates. |
| July 1, 2029 | Santa Monica | Hotel wage | $29.00 | Hotel Worker Living Wage (SMMC ch. 4.63) — ALL hotels in Santa Monica regardless of room count, plus businesses operating on hotel property; covers workers employed directly or through contractors (hostels excluded) |
| January 1, 2030 | Glendale | Hotel wage | $30.00 | Hotel Workers Protection Ordinance (GMC ch. 5.120, 2022) — Hotels with 60+ guest rooms in Glendale (wage component); workload and safety protections apply to all Glendale hotels |
| January 1, 2030 | Los Angeles | Hotel wage | $30.00 | Citywide Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance (LAMC §186.00 et seq.), as amended by the 2025 "Olympic Wage" Ordinance 188610 and Ordinance 188944 (2026) — Hotels with 60+ guest rooms in the City of Los Angeles (threshold as amended 2025; originally 300+ rooms in 2015, then 150+) |
| January 1, 2030 | Michigan | Tipped cash as a share of minimum | 48% | Tipped-wage schedule and source notes — Applies to the minimum wage in effect on that date; future indexed dollar amounts are not assumed. |
| January 1, 2030 | Nebraska | General minimum wage | $16.08 | State schedule and source notes |
| January 1, 2030 | Nebraska | Tipped cash / maximum tip credit | $2.13 / $13.95 | Tipped-wage schedule and source notes — Subject to the applicable occupation, notice, actual-tip and other tip-credit conditions. |
| January 1, 2030 | Santa Monica | Hotel wage | $30.00 | Hotel Worker Living Wage (SMMC ch. 4.63) — ALL hotels in Santa Monica regardless of room count, plus businesses operating on hotel property; covers workers employed directly or through contractors (hostels excluded) |
| July 1, 2030 | Chicago (21+ employees) | Tipped cash as a share of minimum | 100% | Chicago Minimum Wage Ordinance (MCC ch. 6-105) and the May 20, 2026 tipped-wage compromise ordinance — Full parity for this employer tier. |
| July 1, 2030 | Chicago (4–20 employees) | Tipped cash as a share of minimum | 84% | Chicago Minimum Wage Ordinance (MCC ch. 6-105) and the May 20, 2026 tipped-wage compromise ordinance — Percentage of the city minimum then in effect; dollar amounts continue to reflect annual indexing. |
| July 1, 2030 | District of Columbia | Tipped cash as a share of minimum | 65% | Tipped-wage schedule and source notes — Applies to the minimum wage in effect on that date; future indexed dollar amounts are not assumed. |
| July 1, 2030 | San Diego | Hotel wage | $25.00 | Hospitality and Event-Center Minimum Wage Ordinance (O-22003; SDMC ch.3, art.12, div.1) — Hotels with 150 or more guest rooms; employees working at least two hours in a calendar week within San Diego, including covered contracted/on-premises services. Event-center and amusement-park coverage use separate definitions and rates. |
| January 1, 2031 | Michigan | Tipped cash as a share of minimum | 50% | Tipped-wage schedule and source notes — Tip credit preserved permanently at 50% of the minimum wage from 2031 (SB 8 / PA 6 of 2025). |
| July 1, 2031 | Chicago (4–20 employees) | Tipped cash as a share of minimum | 88% | Chicago Minimum Wage Ordinance (MCC ch. 6-105) and the May 20, 2026 tipped-wage compromise ordinance — Percentage of the city minimum then in effect; dollar amounts continue to reflect annual indexing. |
| July 1, 2032 | Chicago (4–20 employees) | Tipped cash as a share of minimum | 94% | Chicago Minimum Wage Ordinance (MCC ch. 6-105) and the May 20, 2026 tipped-wage compromise ordinance — Percentage of the city minimum then in effect; dollar amounts continue to reflect annual indexing. |
| July 1, 2032 | District of Columbia | Tipped cash as a share of minimum | 70% | Tipped-wage schedule and source notes — Applies to the minimum wage in effect on that date; future indexed dollar amounts are not assumed. |
| July 1, 2033 | Chicago (4–20 employees) | Tipped cash as a share of minimum | 100% | Chicago Minimum Wage Ordinance (MCC ch. 6-105) and the May 20, 2026 tipped-wage compromise ordinance — Full parity for this employer tier. |
| July 1, 2034 | District of Columbia | Tipped cash as a share of minimum | 75% | Tipped-wage schedule and source notes — Permanent cap — Initiative 82's full phase-out was repealed. |
Indexed figures and statutory transitions
The 16 jurisdictions below have an indexed mechanism in their rate records, sometimes following a fixed step. Connecticut’s mechanism uses the Employment Cost Index; the other listed mechanisms use consumer prices. A next dollar amount is included above only when already published. Consult the linked guide for the applicable index, announcement, caps, and conditions:
The other 6 jurisdictions (AK, FL, HI, NE, RI, VA) have fixed steps or statutory formulas in the current records. Alaska moves to $15.00 on July 1, 2027 and then indexes from January 2028; Florida’s $15.00 continues through December 2027 before January 2028 indexing; Virginia steps in 2027 and 2028 and resumes indexing in 2029. Nebraska uses a fixed annual 1.75% formula beginning January 2027, with the official published general dollar steps included above. Hawaii has no indexing after its 2028 step under current law. Michigan’s indexed general minimum from 2028 is separate from its fixed tipped-cash percentages through 2031.
Two structural reads of this table. First, the tipped-wage rows are the leading edge of fault line 2: the District's percent-of-minimum schedule and Chicago's march to parity mean the tip-credit map of 2030 is already legislated, and any tipped-compensation strategy with a multi-year horizon should be built against those dated rows, not today's column. Second, what is not in the table is a disclosure, not an absence: indexed jurisdictions publish their next figures only when announced, and local general minimums whose future steps live in agency announcements rather than codified schedules appear on each state guide and the compliance calendar as they are tracked. For budgeting, run the portfolio forecaster; for monitoring, watch developments.
The hotel-ordinance overlay, state by state#
General wage law applies to hotels; these laws apply because you are a hotel. Three design features make them a different compliance species. Coverage is property-specific: obligations switch on at room-count thresholds, so two hotels in the same city — or the same hotel after adding keys — can face different wage floors. The obligations are operational, not just monetary: housekeeping workload caps convert square footage cleaned into premium pay owed, healthcare expenditures add a per-hour payment line, retention rules constrain staffing through an ownership change. Most are waivable in a collective bargaining agreement: a feature that changes union-negotiation dynamics in ways general minimum-wage law never does. The full brief tells each city's story; the list below is the live inventory, linked into it.
California — 15 tracked#
- Los Angeles In effect Hotel minimum wage · Healthcare payment · Service-charge pass-through · $25.00/hour · next: $25.50 on July 1, 2027 · separate health-benefit requirement: $4.25/hour; $6.00 from July 1, 2027
- Los Angeles In effect Workload limits & premium · Panic buttons
- Los Angeles In effect Worker retention
- Los Angeles County (unincorporated) In effect Workload limits & premium · Panic buttons
- Santa Monica In effect Hotel minimum wage · Service-charge pass-through · $25.00/hour · next: $25.50 on July 1, 2027
- Santa Monica In effect Workload limits & premium · Panic buttons · Worker retention
- West Hollywood In effect Hotel minimum wage · Workload limits & premium · Panic buttons · Worker retention · Service-charge pass-through · $20.87/hour
- Glendale In effect Hotel minimum wage · Workload limits & premium · Panic buttons · $25.00/hour · next: $25.50 on July 1, 2027
- Long Beach In effect Hotel minimum wage · Service-charge pass-through · $26.50/hour · next: $28.00 on July 1, 2027
- Long Beach In effect Workload limits & premium · Panic buttons
- Oakland In effect Hotel minimum wage · Healthcare payment · Workload limits & premium · Panic buttons · $25.14/hour without qualifying health benefits
- Anaheim In effect Hotel minimum wage · $21.13/hour
- CA (statewide) In effect Worker retention
- Irvine In effect Panic buttons
- San Diego In effect Hotel minimum wage · $19.00/hour · next: $20.50 on July 1, 2027 · 150+ rooms
Illinois — 1 tracked#
- IL (statewide) In effect Panic buttons
New Jersey — 1 tracked#
- NJ (statewide) In effect Panic buttons
Washington — 3 tracked#
- SeaTac In effect Hotel minimum wage · Worker retention · $20.74/hour
- Seattle In effect Healthcare payment · Workload limits & premium · Panic buttons · Worker retention
- WA (statewide) In effect Panic buttons
For a property-level answer — which ordinances apply at your room count, and what they cost per occupied room — run the compliance profiler and the housekeeper workload auditor.
Running a multi-state portfolio#
Start from the controlling principle: the most protective applicable standard wins, provision by provision. Federal, state, and local law apply simultaneously and are never averaged: a hotel can owe a city wage floor, a state meal-period premium, and federal overtime math in the same shift. There is no contracting out — choice-of-law clauses do not move a property's wage-and-hour obligations, which attach to where the work is performed. The practical consequence is that "which law applies?" is the wrong question; the right one is "for this provision, at this property, which of the three layers is most protective?" — and the answer can differ from one provision to the next within a single paycheck.
Portfolios segment by architecture, not geography. Consider one brand operating in Texas and California — Tier 1 and Tier 4 on the table above. The Texas property runs the federal pattern: weekly-only overtime, a $2.13 tipped cash wage carrying a $5.12 credit (with all of the credit's notice and side-work discipline), no break mandates, the $684.00/week exempt floor. The California property cannot share a single one of those configurations: daily and double overtime, the full minimum in cash for tipped staff, meal and rest periods with premium pay codes, a state exempt floor roughly double the federal, local wage geography, and — depending on the city and room count — a hotel ordinance with healthcare payments and workload premiums. These are not stricter parameters on one payroll template; they are two templates. The portfolio design question is how many templates you need (usually far fewer than fifty — the tier cards above are a first cut) and which properties share one.
Standardize what is scalar; configure what is structural. A highest-common-denominator strategy — run every property to the strictest standard you face anywhere — works only for rules that differ by amount. Paying above-floor wages everywhere is a coherent (if costly) simplification; no analogous move exists for structure: adopting California meal-period timing chain-wide doesn't satisfy Kentucky's differently-shaped rest rule, and you cannot "over-comply" your way out of configuring daily-overtime accrual where it exists. The workable hybrid standardizes scalar generosity where the spread is small and configures structure per regime — which is why knowing which factors put a state in its tier (decompose any badge with the factor table) matters more than the badge itself.
Crossing a fault line is a project, not a memo. Each boundary maps to a system and a tool: entering a no-credit state re-architects tipped compensation and pool design (tip pool architect); a daily-OT state re-architects timekeeping and scheduling habits (workweek auditor); a local-control state forces geo-coded wage tables maintained at the property level (compliance profiler); an ordinance city adds room-count coverage analysis, a workload staffing model, and possibly an hourly healthcare line (workload auditor); fair-workweek cities add predictability pay on top (fair-workweek calculator). And every boundary crossing should be priced for downside as well as run-rate — penalty stacks differ as sharply as the underlying rules (exposure modeler; for California specifically, the PAGA brief).
In diligence, the tier is a triage order, not a price. Acquiring or taking over management of a Tier 1 property, the wage-and-hour data room is federal: tip-credit notices, regular-rate inputs, off-the-clock controls, exemption files. A Tier 4 target adds break-premium accrual history, local-rate compliance by property geography, ordinance coverage analysis at the room count, workload-premium payment records, and — in retention-rule cities — constraints on post-closing staffing that exist nowhere else. The factor decomposition tells you which questions to ask; the exposure modeler tells you what the wrong answers cost.
Methodology, limits, and freshness#
The map, rate table, comparison data, and hotel-law capsules reflect the October 18, 2026 rate-review date. The scheduled-change horizon distinguishes published dollar amounts, future tipped-cash percentages, and statutory formulas; it does not turn unknown future indexed figures into forecasts. Static guide analysis and complexity scores have their own source-specific qualifications. The complexity score is an editorial comparison of tracked features, not a legal conclusion about a property. See the methodology for source-review scope and calculation limits.
Known limits, stated plainly: the dataset tracks general and hotel-specific wage-hour rules — it does not cover sector minimums outside hospitality, prevailing-wage regimes, child-labor rules beyond the minors brief, or enforcement posture, and the horizon table is scoped to the published state and hotel steps and qualified tipped-wage schedules described above, with general local wage changes linked through the guides and calendar. The complexity index is a reading aid with a published methodology, not legal advice about any property. For jurisdiction-specific decisions, start from the state guide's sources and the compliance calendar, and watch developments for changes between reviews.